The Dragon, Serpent of old the Devil and Satan of the Revelation

The Dragon , the serpent of old, the Devil and Satan

Why is there so much violence in heaven?

Why does the God that Christendom believes in allow the saved to be attacked so much?

Those questions may sound like I don’t believe in God. Well what I don’t believe in is the God that Christianity puts forward as the God that I must believe in to be saved. Let me try to explain why.

Please read the following passages:

Revelation 12:3 -17. 13:4-7: 17:14. 19:11-19

I’m assuming that you have read them.

The majority of Christians that I have known believe that Revelation is dealing with events in the future. So, all of the events that we read in Revelation have yet to happen. I know that some believe that chapters 1- 3 are dealing with the days that the Christians were living in back in the latter days of the 1^st century but that they also had prophetic applications for today.

I am also aware, incredulously, that some Christians have never read the book of Revelation. And some have read it once and didn’t understand it so they never went back to it.

Let’s now look at

Revelation 12:3 -17

Dragon only appears in the NT and then only in Revelation, Vine’s dictionary of Bible words says that the word means a “Mythical Monster so called because of its keen sight” verse 9 says that this dragon was called “That ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan,…”

Who was the serpent of old or the ancient serpent? Most people and that, at one time included myself, will take you to Genesis 3:1 and point out that:

1 The serpent was the devil or the serpent of old or Satan because:

a. It could talk.

b. That it was disobedient to God

c. That it had arms and legs and walked.

And I used to be a follower of that line of thinking until I read it again. This is what I came up with:

1 The serpent was an ordinary serpent because:

a. Genesis 3:1 says that it was a wild animal

b. Nowhere in the OT are we told that before the fall animals couldn’t talk. After all didn’t God parade all the animals before Adam to find a partner for him.

c. Before it was cursed by God. It may have had another form of mobility at least it may have walked on two or four legs we don’t know. What we do know is it didn’t crawl on it’s belly.

d. After the curse it would act like the type of animal that we know as a snake or a serpent crawling in the dust.

Where do we read in the Bible that Satan or the Devil crawled in the dust? I don’t believe that the serpent of old refers to the serpent of Genesis 3. What do I think Revelation 12:9 refers to then? I don’t know yet but I do believe that it doesn’t refer to Genesis 3:

Just as a side I'd like to look at the book of Job

Some say that the book of Job predates Genesis and when you read it you might see why. But my belief is that Job was around when Abraham was around.

But it doesn’t matter because Job came after Adam and therefore it was after Satan or the serpent had been cursed

In the book of job we read where the angels are gathered together God says to Satan, who by the way is still walking around heaven freely and this is after Genesis 3 when the serpent or Satan is supposedly in God's bad books, Have you considered my servant Job? God asks Satan. Job was a faithful believer he had been richly rewarded by God for his faithful service. Satan points out to God that he is possibly only a good servant because He, God, gives him riches and everything and so Satan says if you took that away from him then he wouldn’t be the faithful servant that you, God, thinks he is. Satan has supposedly been cursed but here he is wondering around heaven like he's one of the angels which if you read Job ch 1 that is what Satan is, an angel. Now this seems strange to me that he is cursed to crawl on his belly and yet he is walking around heaven and the earth.

Now God gives permission for Satan to do his worst on job but he tells him that he can’t kill him. But eventually Job loses everything he has but he still won’t blame God, but he does ask for an explanation for all that’s happened to him. Now I have a problem with this contest. Two powerful beings one is the creator of the whole universe and the other a powerful Angel able to command armies (see Job) and is able to travel between heaven and earth, set out, one of them to bring this mere mortal to his knees and the other allowing it to happen and, it seems to me, just to prove a point.

Does it sound like the Gods we read about in the Greek legends where the Gods are jealous of each other and so they destroy a mere mortal just to satisfy their egos? The book ofJob comes awful close to it

Next week I will look at the Dragon of Revelation.

Dragon found in Revelation 12:3 "Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads."